Strategic Management

This course applies tools from microeconomics and industrial organization to competitive decision making. First you will learn to understand industry economics and the individual position of a particular firm, taking the industry economics as given. Next you will study issues related to both the vertical and horizontal scopes of firms. The third part introduces basic game theory which is used to analyze issues such as bargaining power, price competition, entry and exit decisions, standard setting and technological competition.

A group of about 30 students meet faculty, visiting business executives and others to explore approaches, ideas and questions about strategy in greater depth. The goals are to develop a better understanding of the methods and techniques of strategic thinking and to explore the design, implementation and evaluation of strategy. The development of tools and concepts for evaluating strategies both before and after the outcome is known and to seek insights that will improve the process of designing strategy are important.

This course integrates advanced analytical techniques with intuitive economic (strategic) analysis with an eye on how organizations really make decisions. You will learn to develop and apply a variety of tools to achieve greater understanding and sophistication in all aspects of the processes by which companies make strategic investment decisions. The main goal will be for students to learn to use option pricing, dynamic programming, decision trees, simulation techniques, scenario analysis and game theory to value investment opportunities. The focus will be to both incorporate the value from flexibility, delay, strategic responses, and learning into the analysis and to develop the tools to model and evaluate the full range of environmental and strategic uncertainty that companies face. We will also study the organizational processes required for effective strategic investment decisions and resource allocation. Among the issues we will discuss are decentralization/centralization, incentives, measurement, and communication processes.

Taught by former C-level executives, this course focuses on the practical, current, key issues with which general managers often deal when they take over a new assignment. These include: joining a company from the outside to take charge of a subsidiary in need of change; implementing your game plan and choosing your management style; the importance of self-awareness and communications in managing others effectively; making decisions and setting priorities in a turnaround-around situation; and transitioning a very successful startup to a large corporation - without losing its distinctive culture.

This course focuses on strategic decision making in technology intensive industries. You will learn about a set of conceptual models that help determine which technologies to invest in, when to make the investments, how to capture value from the technology investment, and how to anticipate and respond to competitors and customers. Particular emphasis will be placed on building models for making strategic decisions in the context of significant technology, demand, and competitive uncertainty.